Ghost Of A Chance Part 18

"You've never seen an imp race?" Now, that was curious. Imp races were standard fare in most polter kids' lives.

"There will be no imp racing in my house!" Adam yelled, glaring at me.

"Those are your pests; you take care of them!"

"I told you they were housebroken."

"I don't care. I don't want them running around, getting into trouble."

"Yeah, you wouldn't want anyone doing something unauthorized, like murdering someone," Pixie said in a dry voice.

Adam bent a frown upon her. "I could do with less lip from you."

"Whatever." She stood up and stretched. "Since you ruined all the fun, I gotta go to the can."

"They're really not harmful imps," I told Adam. "They're Australian. Very domesticated, not at all like the common European variety."

"If you don't take care of them, I will," he warned.

"Imp n.a.z.i," my father muttered as he helped me round up the imps and replace them into their box.

"I imagine he's just as tired as the rest of us."

Pixie had donated her scarf for the imps to curl up on. I tucked them away with her scarf before returning to my spot at the table and flipping open my notebook. I raised my eyebrows at Adam. "Who's next?"

"Your father and the girl are the only ones left. We'll take her as soon as she comes back from the bathroom."

I chewed on the end of my pen. It wasn't surprising that he had excluded his wards from the list of possible suspects. I had a feeling the only reason we had talked to Amanita was that we'd caught her in the bas.e.m.e.nt. "What about Jules and Tony?"

"What about them?"

"Don't we interview them, as well? We did Amanita."

Adam sat down across from me, and for a moment, weariness showed in his face. I knew he was tired-I certainly was, given the events of the evening and the lateness of the hour-but polters had deep reserves of strength that should have bolstered him. "Jules and Tony aren't suspects."

I hesitated, knowing I had to tread carefully. "They aren't to you, but can you say without a shred of doubt that someone at the watch might not wonder if there wasn't some nepotism displayed on your part if everyone isn't treated to the same interview process?"

That brought him up short. He snorted but seemed to consider it.

"The truth has to be faced. They can interact in our world, they were alone at the time of the murder, and they had good cause to fear Spider and the diffuser after Sergei was killed, I'm sorry, Adam. That's means, opportunity, and motive."

"That means nothing. You and I had all three as well, and we both agree we didn't do it."

"I think it would be wise if we formally eliminated everyone."

Adam sighed. "Fine, but if you upset them, there'll be h.e.l.l to pay. You have no idea what horrible sorts of meals they can produce when they're not happy."

"I'll use kid gloves, I promise," I said, looking through the door at the empty hallway and staircase. "What on earth can she be doing?"

"If she's anything like my daughter was, she'll be in there for hours."

I sat back, intrigued by this unexpected glimpse into Adam's private life.

"I didn't realize you had a daughter. The League files didn't say you'd been married."

"I haven't, and the League doesn't always know everything about people.

Take, for instance, the incident concerning you. There's remarkably little detail about it-just a note that you were charged with the extirpation of a six-year-old child, for which the penalty was wergeld."

"You're trying to distract me from the subject of your daughter," I said with a little smile.

"And you're trying to avoid talking about your past. It seems we both have things we'd like to keep private."

My smile faded. "True enough. I have an admittedly annoying curiosity about people. I'm sorry if I stepped on your toes. I was just surprised to hear you had a daughter."

"She's in college. I don't see her often." He was silent for a moment, then leaned forward, his breath brushing my face as he asked, "Why did you kill a six-year-old girl?"

I glanced at my father. He was chatting with Jules and Tony, who had come into the room to pick up coffee cups and empty plates. I didn't want to talk about what had happened so many years before, but somehow, I felt that Adam might understand what I'd gone through.

The familiar sensations of guilt and loathing rose at the memory. My hands cramped as I twisted the lace tablecloth tight between my fingers. I made a point of flattening my palms against my thighs. "It was an accident. I was only six myself, which is why the League gave me a punishment of wergeld rather than banishment. They said I wasn't cognizant enough to know what I was doing."

Adam nodded, saying nothing. I couldn't stand sitting still, so I grabbed a couple of tissues and started dusting a knickknack shelf that sat behind Adam.

"They were right about one thing: I didn't know what I was doing. Tami was my friend. She had a cruel streak, but I was a bit of a loner, being only half polter in a polter society. I didn't know I had the power to banish anyone to the Akasha, let alone destroy them. My parents didn't suspect anything. No one did, least of all me."

My voice dribbled to a stop. I took a deep breath. "One day we were playing around with Tami's father's scrying bowl. She thought it would be fun to use it to light a fire, only she wanted a live target, and decided her mother's cat was suitable for the experiment. I was horrified. I loved animals, and I wanted no part of the torture of a cat. I tried to get her to stop, but she caught the cat and hauled it and the bowl outside."

The tissues were dirty. I tossed them into a waste-basket, moving it a few feet to the side. Strong emotions always made me feel antsy, as if my skin was itching, leaving me with the need to be doing something physical to work off the excess energy. Adam must have known well those feelings, for he said nothing as I flitted back and forth tidying things up, rearranging the various bottles on the sideboard.

"I tried to take the bowl away from her, but she just teased me that I wasn't quick enough or strong enough to keep up with her. She ran off with the cat and bowl, with me in hot pursuit. I fell at one point, skinning both knees badly, but even that didn't stop me. When I reached her, she had the cat tied down and was trying to position the bowl to catch the sunlight."

The emotions I had felt thirty-odd years before were still as fresh in my mind as when I had originally felt them. "Anger, pain, horror...they mingled together into one terrible moment that erupted when I managed to s.n.a.t.c.h the scrying bowl away from Tami, my emotions focused into the bowl until they exploded outward, knocking me back. When I shook the stars from my head and sat up, it was to find myself alone with the cat, Tami's terrified howl still echoing in my ears."

Slowly I turned to Adam. His face was blank. I knew he was trying to encourage me to talk, much as if I was a suspect he was interviewing. I moved a few inches to the side of the now burnt lamp. "At first, everyone thought my inadvertent eruption of power had banished her. Her parents got permission from the League to search the Akasha. They looked for her for three days before they gave up."

If I closed my eyes, I could still see the scene in my head: my father, newly separated from my mother, drawn home by the tragedy. The two of them sitting side by side on our old green couch. Me hiding in the coat closet, eavesdropping as Tami's parents tearfully told mine that there had been no sign she had ever been to the Akasha. The look of horror on my mother's face as she realized that her daughter had destroyed another living being ... I turned away from Adam, the pain and shame of that moment still too much to share with anyone.

"Everyone was very nice to me. They said I wasn't at fault; I was too young to know what I was doing, too young to know how to harness my powers. But they worried that what could happen once, could happen again, that I'd get angry and out of control, and another innocent person would suffer. So the wergeld was bound to me, and I spent the next thirteen years being tutored in the art of transmortis anomaly extermination."

"That's harsh for a child," he said softly, his gaze holding mine. "Thank you for telling me, Karma. The experience you went through was traumatic, but it's clear that it tempered you into a champion for those weaker than you, be it a cat or a spirit. It also validates my impression that you are incapable of truly harming anyone."

I thought of the beings I'd cleaned and said nothing.

15.

"Houston, we have a problem."

The living room was empty of everyone but Adam when I returned to it.

He looked up from making notes. "We do?"

"Pixie is missing. She wasn't in the bathroom, and wasn't in any of the unoccupied rooms. Where's my father?"

"In the kitchen, helping the boys make more coffee. He said you looked worse than roadkill that had sat in the hot sun for three days, and could use a cup or two."

"A gallon is more like it," I answered, rubbing my forehead. I was so tired it was getting difficult to think with any sort of clarity. "Have you seen Pixie?"

He shook his head. "She hasn't been downstairs. I'd have noticed her if she used the front stairs, and the back stairs only go to the kitchen. Don't worry about her, Karma. She can't get out, and she can't get into any trouble in the house."

"I can't help but worry about her. I'm responsible for her! There's a murderer in the house, and there's no telling what horrible things he could do to her..."

"He?" Adam asked.

"Or she. The point is, there's a murderer running around, and I can't find Pixie."

He looked thoughtful. "Very well. I'll go look for her."

"I'll get the guys from the kitchen to help. She's probably just hiding somewhere, thinking it's cute to cause us worry, but I don't like her off on her own until Meredith is in custody."

"You're certain Meredith is the killer, aren't you?" Adam asked, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh yes. He's guilty of murder. The job is going to be proving it."

"If you're so certain, then why am I busting my b.a.l.l.s to interview everyone else?"

I couldn't help smiling at the disgruntled expression on his face. "Because you're a member of the watch, and you won't commit yourself to a suspect until you've sifted through all the evidence. I don't mind doing the interviews with you, if that's what you're implying. In fact, I think they're helpful. I'm positive there are a few secrets that need to come out."

"Spoken like someone who has bared her soul," he answered with a wry smile. "Some of us may not wish to have all our secrets out in the open."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about. I was thinking more along the lines of what other machines Meredith has up his sleeves. I'll check the kitchen and the ground floors. Shall I send the spirits up to help you?"

He nodded and went upstairs. I found my father and the two ghosts sitting in the kitchen quite cozily around a small table, the scent of brewing coffee making my mouth water.

"-and I said to her, 'Karma, don't let one little incident ruin the rest of your'-oh, h.e.l.lo, honey."

"I don't suppose there are any more of those croissants left?" I was too tired to muster up even the feeblest glare at my father for airing my dirty laundry to the two spirits, although I did mentally utter a couple of swear words when it was apparent they were now very wary of me.

"Yes. You're welcome to them," Jules said, nudging a plate of two croissants toward me as if he expected me to s.n.a.t.c.h it up and decapitate him with it.

I acquired both coffee and a croissant, saying nothing to them other than "Adam would like to see you two upstairs. Pixie has gone missing, and we're trying to find her. Dad, you can help me search down here."

We looked all over the ground floor of the house, but there was no sign of Pixie.

"I take it by the silence from upstairs that Adam isn't having any better luck," I said, one finger tapping on my lips as I mulled over possible hiding spots that would appeal to a teenage polter.

"There's always..." Dad waved a hand toward the bas.e.m.e.nt door.

"She wouldn't go down there. Would she?"

He shrugged. "She's an odd one. Maybe she likes dead bodies."

"Way off the ew meter there, Dad." I sighed. "All right, let's go check."

"I'll do it, honey. You just stand on the stairs and alert the marines if Spider's body rises up and tries to eat my brains or something."

I followed him down the stairs, thanking my stars that I hadn't inherited his warped sense of humor.

Dad flicked on the lights, moving swiftly to the junction in the room.

"Body's still there. Doesn't look like it's moved."

"I'm not concerned about him becoming a zombie," I said dryly.

"It's 'revenant,' not 'zombie,' Karma. How do you expect to get ahead if you don't use the correct terminology? Was it here the unicorn was hiding?"

He slipped behind the heater, then emerged to dust cobwebs off his sleeves.

"Yes. Anything?"

"No." He stooped to pick up something. "Not unless you're interested in a handful of apports. These appear to be ... oh."

I turned at the sound of Adam's calling my name from upstairs. "We're down here. They appear to be what, Dad?"

"Nothing important."

"There you are. We looked upstairs and couldn't find her. Anything down here? What did Matthew find that wasn't important?" Adam asked as he made his way down the bas.e.m.e.nt stairs toward us.

"Apports, I gather. From the floor in front of the heater."

"Let's see."

Dad shot me an odd look as he dropped a couple of jade green stones into Adam's hand. We followed Adam up the stairs and into the better light of the hall, both of us peering over his shoulder.

"Those are apports all right," I said.

"Hmm." Adam poked at them with his finger. "Green. I've never seen these before. My apports are white."

"They must be Pixie's," Dad said, zipping into the living room to fuss with things that didn't need fussing with. "She must have been in the bas.e.m.e.nt when we weren't looking."

I watched Adam, fear building steadily inside me, as he turned the apports over in his hand. "She has to be here. She can't leave. She must be hiding somewhere. Did you look in Meredith's room?"

He nodded. "Jules looked there. Tony went into Savannah's. There were only the designated occupants. No Pixie in either room."